The Tides That Join Us Together

Chapter 71: Crew Day

Cameron

"Who taught you how to cook?" I asked China. Her, Lauryn, and momma Speights threw down in the kitchen for breakfast.

"I taught myself, really." she said. "I watched momma in the kitchen, then just started doing what I saw."

"I need to start doing that because I know college food isn't what they try to say it is." I said. "It's all a lie."

"Ahh shut up." Taj said. "You had one plate bro. Ate maybe about 3 things all together."

"And those three things set the tone." I said. "The rest of the food really isn't going to taste different."

"Coach takes us on a field trip to different colleges across Cali and this guy thinks he's the food guru of college now." he said.

"Don't believe me if you don't want to." I said, shrugging my shoulders, holding the door open for everyone to the laser tag arena. My eyes took a minute, adjusting to the mostly dark room aside from the floor and wall lights.

"Y'all about to take this ass whooping though." Taj said. It was teams of 2 v 2. Taj and I, China and Lauryn, and Ty and Thomas. "Come on Cam. Let's huddle real quick."

"What's the plan?" I whispered. "Back to back?"

"No if we go back to back that leaves room for a lot of error and for the both of us to trip over each other." he said. "I'm thinking opposite wings. We use the little speaker on our vests to communicate."

"Where's the protection of we do opposite wings?" I asked.

"If we come from opposite directions on people it gives either one of us a chance to power them down before they can even lift their gun up." he said. "Opposite or adjacent wings work either way."

"10 seconds, losers." Lauryn said, referring to the countdown clock. In 10 seconds the room goes completely dark, giving us 30 seconds to scatter across the arena.

"Okay. Yeah. That works." I said. "You go that way. I go this way." I kept my hand low as possible, pointing in the directions I was talking about, so no one else could see. Then, the room went dark. Taj and I giving each other a fist bump as we passed each other going in our separate directions. All we relied on until those lights came back on, we're the tiny glow in our vests, so that we didn't trip over anything. Those 30 seconds felt like forever, my eyes adjusting to the lights that were now back on.

"You good bro?" Taj whispered into his best speaker.

"Hell..yeah.." I whispered back, taking quiet steps. Taj and I's beacon on our shoulders were blue. Thomas and Ty's were red, and China and Lauryn's were purple.

"Okay.." he whispered again. "I'm making my way slowly towards your direction. China and Lauryn are close, somewhere smack dab in the middle. I can hear them."

"Thanks for the heads up." I whispered. Whenever someone was close to you, that wasn't your partner, your vest gave you small vibrations, that intensified the closer you got. I heard a giggle, causing me to move behind the nearest wall, me taking a pause in breathing to listen again.

"I'm looking at them." Taj whispered. "They know you're there. They're gonna try to whip it around both sides of that wall to trap you. I'm laid out on the ground so my beacon blends in."